Grave robbers came well prepared last week when they moved on a
monumental tomb of large stone blocks located by the road that once
connected the ancient city of Finiq with the hinterland.

With the
help of a heavy construction digger the looters cut a trench through
the hillside several metres deep, scattering stone blocks of the tomb
with a power shovel.

The monumental tomb, believed to date from
the Hellenistic period, from between the Second and Third Century BC,
situated in the Palasa valley in the Delvina region of southern Albania,
is only metres from an important late-Bronze Age archeological site
known as Bajkaj tumulus.

“This monument was destroyed in broad
daylight with an excavator under the watch of the all cultural
institutions and the state, which has a duty to protect our national
heritage,” says historian Auron Tare, who first raised the alarm about
the looting of the monument.

The destruction of the monumental tomb is unfortunately not a singular incident in Albania.

Archeologists
and activists alike say Albanian sites are regularly targeted by
looters, who in the past two decades have wrought terrific damage to the
country’s historical patrimony.

The theft of antiques became
rampant in Albania in the 1990s, as the country struggled through a
period of anarchy and lawlessness following the collapse of the
authoritarian Communist regime.

Crater left by looters who used an excavator to dig the tomb | Photo courtesy of Auron Tare

Though the situation has since improved, experts say theft from archaeological sites continues to be a problem.

This
plunder often goes on under the nose of local authorities, who experts
say should be held accountable when heritage sites are looted.

“Cases like this are widespread across Albania,” says Lorenc Bejko, professor of archeology in the University of Tirana.

According
to Bjeko, looting is ongoing in the Shkumbin valley in central Albania,
in the region of Korca in the south and in Shkodra in the north.

“We
have indications that there is looting even in protected areas like the
necropolis of the [archeological park] of Apollonia,” Bejko said.

“Everywhere,
from north to south and east to west, looters are hunting for buried
treasure and artifacts, and the damage they cause is immense,” he added.

According to Bejko, 75 per cent of the archeological sites
that he has visited in recent years have experienced looting from
treasure hunters, although the exact scale of this problem is almost
impossible to measure.

Situated between two major ancient
civilizations, Greek and Roman, in a land once occupied by Illyrian
tribes, Albania is dotted with hundreds archeological sites starting
from prehistoric times.

Impressive former Hellenistic and Roman
colonies, such as Butrint and Apollonia, are rich in extant temples and
villas, which offer precious insight into the ancient Mediterranean
world.

Human remains unearthed by looters in the looted tomb near the village of Bajkaj, in Southern Albania | Photo courtesy of Auron Tare

These sites have enthused the interest of treasure hunters, who
experts say are getting increasingly sophisticated in their illegal
trade, while the authorities remain one step behind.

According
to Heritage Without Borders, a consortium of 12 groups engaged in the
preservation of cultural patrimony in the Balkans, Albania needs to
strengthen its laws in order to combat the growing contraband in
artifacts.

At a conference in Tirana in August 2011, the
organization urged the authorities to amend the cultural heritage law to
provide for better monitoring and enhanced security of cultural sites.

The
organization also called for the improved division of competencies
among public institutions, which often fail to cooperate to the desired
level.

Bejko explains that Albania’s archeological sites are
monitored by local agencies divided by administrative divisions and the
local municipalities concerning the sites that fall in their
jurisdiction.

However, regional agencies tasked at protecting
monuments and municipalities fail to cooperate properly, while officials
are not held accountable when sites are damaged or destroyed by
looters.

“If we hold mayors accountable for cannabis grown in
their territory, why shouldn’t we charge them when cultural sites are
destroyed with heavy machinery for all to see?” Bejko asked.

Tare,
former director of the Butrint Archeological Park agrees, arguing that
although looting is also a problem elsewhere, foreign governments do a
better job at investigating and bringing those responsible to justice.

“Albania’s cultural monuments are facing an unprecedented wave of destruction from people digging for artifacts,” Tare said.

“Cultural
institutions seem totally inept in taking legal action in order to stop
the looting and these monuments seemed to have been abandoned to their
fate,” he added.

This article is funded under the BICCED project, supported by the Swiss Cultural Programme.